The new move from Facebook comes after it recently reported record revenues of 2.5 billion dollars (£1.5 billion) from 750 million daily users.

The end of quarter results, published at the end of last month, showed a revenue rise of one billion dollars (£0.6bn) on the same period last year.

A total of 757 million people used the world's biggest social media platform every day between October and December, up from 618 million the same time in 2012.

In 2012, Facebook bought photo sharing social media site Instagram for one billion US dollars (£600 million).

Professor Will Stewart from the Institution of Engineering and Technology said it was a wise move for Facebook.

"Obviously WhatsApp adds instant messaging to Facebook which must strengthen their position for the moment.

"Equally, all app types rise and fade, so established social media formats like Facebook will be overtaken by something new, and picking up candidates that might have ultimately replaced them may be a good survival strategy for a while."

He said it shows the growing significance of mobile, but added: " Facebook has been around a while now so the real question is what comes next?"